The Famine Truth

Imagine my anger and surprise to see the letter in the October 18-24 issue titled “British Didn’t Cause Famine” by Peadar O’Fiach of the Bronx.

The English indeed did cause the Famine, in fact they created it! Thousands of barrels of barley, wheat, oats and flour were exported to England during the Famine years.

Also pork, beef and bacon, as well as butter and lard, filled ships going to England as the Irish laid dying of starvation and parasitical diseases of malnutrition.

The dead bodies filled the villages as the carts rolled through with the food produced in Ireland (from our land) that was sufficient to sustain the population. All that went to England.

This shows that the genocide that our countrymen suffered is not known by the public, even those with Irish roots.

Yes, there was a potato blight, but that was not the only food of the country. The Irish people were robbed of their resources, causing death across the land.

Yes, many did not tell the tales of starvation as they emigrated to the U.S. and around the world. They couldn’t. The horror was too much to bear.

Just as Holocaust survivors were not quick to tell their tales, it’s finally out and known. Now our story must be told.

We have to get our history out to the public and into the schools. It’s in the books, the songs, the plays, the poems, but it is not in the regular day-to-day education of the people. It is vital to move our culture and history to the forefront.

The museums are a must. There is much to do and we each have a responsibility to do what we can.

I for one want Peadar O’Fiach to hear the full story.

Maureen A. Kennedy
Cincinnati, Ohio

Madden’s Quest

MAY the force be with U.S. Marine Sergeant Liam Madden, who has the moral courage to say no to the idiocy of America’s futile and suicidal misadventures in Iraq and elsewhere.

There are readers of the Irish Voice, such as myself, who do not have access to the Internet. Could you please provide us with an address so that we might express meaningfully our solidarity with his valiant efforts?

Please God Sergeant Madden’s noble enterprise blossoms and gives heartburn to our tongue warriors, Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et al.

John Keenan
Bronx, New York

THE address for the group Sergeant Madden has aligned with, Appeal for Redress, is PO Box 53052, Washington, D.C. 20009-3052. Phone number is 360-241-1414.

No End in Sight

THE main point of my recent letter “Don’t Use Deaths” (September 27-October 3) was that the U.S. is fighting an endless religious war in the Middle East.

In attacking me as a lefty in the October 25-31 issue, letter writer John Rogers does not dispute this point, but rather seems to confirm it. For Mr. Rogers the world is neatly divided into the sacred and the evil, just like the 9/11 hijackers.

I’m only surprised that he doesn’t have the Virgin Mary singing in his celestial alleluia choir for holy war.

Robert A. Schauder
Flushing, New York

Second Best

PADRAIG Harrington’s 30th second place finish in the recent Volvo Masters was ironic in the sense that it captured for him the biggest victory of his career to date, the Harry Vardon Trophy as Europe’s leading money winner. He became only the third Irishman to win this prestigious honor, and hopefully it’s a sign of even greater things to come.

After having a poor Ryder Cup by his standards, certain sectors of the Irish and British media were rather cruel to him with their comments. Padraig answered these armchair critics the best way possible by coming from a seemingly impossible position three weeks ago to overtake the two Englishmen, David Howell and Paul Casey, to stand on the podium.

There is no reason to believe that Harrington can’t join Fred Daly as the only Irishman to win a major in golf.

Sean McPhillips
College Point, New York

Don’t Like? Don’t Read

REGARDING Frank Brady’s letter in last week’s issue about Georgina Brennan’s homecoming, there are some of us, myself included, who find Georgina’s articles interesting and charming. I look forward to them.

Mr. Brady should learn to skip what he doesn’t like and leave it for the enjoyment of the rest of us.

Hope Bailey
Dresden, Maine

Protestant Warning

REPUBLICAN Sinn Fein and its sectarian, Nazi death squads have proven to the free world that they are more sectarian than Gerry’s bhoys. Not an easy task.

Republican war criminals take heed — the Protestant people haven’t gone away, you know. The pan-Nationalist front’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide claimed many innocent victims, but the loyal Protestant people remain and will survive no matter what the racist Republican gangsters do to try to kill us off.

I salute the brave freedom fighters of Ulster who took the war to the doorstep of the Republican war machine and forced the biggest group of racist, sectarian Republican murderers to come, with begging cap in hand, to the peace table.

Lest the racists of Republican Sinn Fein think they can pick up the Provos’ campaign for a racially pure, communist republic, think again. They will do what they do best – fail.

The Protestant people will never be driven from their Ulster homeland, so get used to it bhoys. Their vision of a fascist, Gaelic, Catholic socialist republic free of all non-Irish will never come to pass.35 five years of racist genocide at the hands of Republican hate mongers. They failed to kill us off, and they will never be victorious.

We have never surrendered, and never will.

John Gregg
Pleasantville, New York

A Firing Offense

I AM bothered by the letter in last week’s issue by Frank Durkan, which defended New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi.

Mr. Durkan, with all due respect, if I did what Mr. Hevesi did at my workplace – take advantage of New York taxpayer money by having my spouse driven around by state employees – I would be fired, and probably charged with a crime to boot. I dare say most people would have to go through the same punishment from their employers.

Why should Mr. Hevesi be different? Just because he championed the MacBride Principles in the past? That’s nonsense.

What he did was wrong and deceitful. He abused the trust of the voters who put him in office, and he deserves to be removed – which, I’m sure, he will be after the elections, either by the voters or by act of the new governor.

I voted for Hevesi in the past. I thought he was a fine man and a good comptroller. But I’m profoundly disappointed by his conduct in office, when he should have been watching the state’s money instead of spending it on his wife.

Hevesi is not getting a free pass as far as I’m concerned because he’s a good guy and did good things for the Irish. Anything he did was for political gain anyway – and now he’s thrown all that goodwill away.

I hope Mrs. Hevesi is on the road to recovery, and gets the treatment she needs – with her own money. I expect Mr. Hevesi will have plenty of time to focus on this in the months to come when he’s out of a job.

John A. Larkin
Glens Falls, New York